Between the Lines
by Nightshade's sydneylover150
Summary: House wonders what Wilson will do now that the ball is in his court. sequel to What's Unsaid


TITLE: Between the Lines  
AUTHOR: sydneylover150  
PAIRING: House/Wilson strong friendship or pre-slash (take the last line however you want)  
RATING: PG13  
WARNINGS: Based off of speculation from No Reason for the third season.  
SUMMARY: "Greg wondered what Wilson would do now that the ball was in his court."  
DISCLAIMER: I'm a poor college student, if I had my way there would be more H/W scenes on the screen.

SEQUEL TO: What's Unsaid (which has been re-edited)

NOTES: This is for reemaria, fayding-fast, and love and music are forever, all of whom requested a companion piece or sequel. Again writing for me is a lesson, so please give me criticism where it is due. Thanks!

BETAED BY: HobbitLily, who unfortunately does not have a clue about the show, so all character mistakes are my own.

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House slumped in his bed. He knew that Wilson was awake the entire time he thought aloud. Greg wondered what Wilson would do now that the ball was in his court. Would Wilson blame House for allowing this "addiction" to misery control him or would he comfort House? In all honesty, House didn't know which option would be worse.

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Wilson stared at the ceiling; not being able to believe what he just heard. _"The pain… it is coming back."_ Staring at the cracks in the ceiling Wilson couldn't help but think that House known all along this would happen; just so he could prove to Wilson that he would always be miserable.

_No_. Wilson sat up in disgust at his thoughts; finding it uncomfortable to remain lying on the couch after he accused his friend, albeit only in his mind, of purposely making himself miserable. _House couldn't have known. He wouldn't have agreed to the procedure if he thought it wouldn't work. As much as he likes to fuck with me, he wouldn't have done the procedure solely to toy with me. He would have just continued to tell Cuddy and I that it was a waste of time._

Wilson had accused House before of purposefully making himself miserable after he forced Stacy to leave. But after Wilson had to face himself that his own wife was having an affair; Wilson had not been so swift to judge House's action.

_He has always had his own set of morals that he lived his life by. Could this have been the one time that he actually acted like a decent human being and I accused him of being a miserable asshole?_ It was possible. Indeed, from House's rambling only moments before, it sounded like that had been House's intention and House sounded disgusted at the thought of even thinking such a thing. That meant what House said was true. It meant as much as House loved Stacy, he knew it wasn't right and it wouldn't end well.

As much as Wilson just wanted Stacy and House to be together again like they had been before, the logical part of him knew that the thing with Stacy would have never work; just as the possible relationship with Cameron never would have. The two relationships were doomed to fail before they even started. Cameron's because she wanted to make House whole and Stacy's because House changed too much from the person he once was and Stacy hadn't. So that left his relationship with House, and personally, if he allowed himself to think about it; he was equally guilty of playing the game of "fix-House-up" and "Lets-pretend-that-he-can-be-the-same-person-as-he-was-before" groups.

This brought Wilson to his problem that House threw at him a year ago. He assumed that House could become that person that he was before the infarction. James wanted so badly to see the years of mistrust and anger fall away. He had been so sure that without the pills House would be himself again. That House could be the funny, animated man he had once been. But looking back at the past four weeks, Wilson realized that it hadn't been the pills that made the difference in House's personality. It was the pain.

_Oh my god. After all the things I have put him through and the things I've said… He was right._ Wilson realized as he came to his senses that he now had a compulsion to go talk to House. _But he won't want to talk. He never wants to talk._

It was another part of Wilson that answered his comments. Ironically, the voice sounded very much like his best friend. **_Coward. He's tried to talk to you before. Greg tried last year before Christmas and Hanukkah, but you were the one who didn't want to talk. All he did was not push. _**

Coward. The word echoed through his head. House always tried to get him to confront his problems, in his own way. It may have been cruel, but it was Greg's way of calling James on his mistakes.

Wilson knew then that he couldn't sit on the couch anymore and stare at the cracks in the ceiling. Slowly, feeling as if the weight of the world was suddenly coming crashing down on his heart, James Wilson got up from the couch and moved down the hallway to House's bedroom.

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House listened as Wilson got up off the couch. For a moment, House contemplated pretending to be asleep, but he dismissed the idea. Wilson knew him too well to believe that he would fall immediately asleep after confessing his feelings about everything from Stacy to his addiction to the growing pain in his leg as the ketamine treatment failed.

_No, that won't work._ Instead Greg braced himself with a sharp, barbed comment to combat Wilson's vehement denials of House's pain. James would never want to believe that his friend's pain was returning because it would destroy all his hope that Greg could have a life that was not filled with pain and pills.

But when Wilson came in, he looked… well drawn, resigned, and… pitiful. Although no one knew it nor would ever believe it, Greg didn't like to see his friend in pain. So upon seeing Wilson in such a pitiful state, House did the one thing he could do. He opened his mouth.

"Why do you look so pitiful Jimmy? Did you find out that hookers aren't going to fall lovingly into your lap like in Pretty Woman?"

James, his friend, just stared at him with sad eyes for a few minutes. He totally ignored House's comment; either that or he didn't hear it.

"Why?" Wilson asked softly staring at his friend in his bed. House had to struggle to keep himself still under that glaze, not because it was reprimanding or anything; but because it contained all the emotions that were whirling around Wilson's mind.

"Why what? Why is the sky blue? Why do idiots reproduce? Why did the directors of the OC kill off a person in the season finale?" House asked, knowing exactly what Wilson wanted to know, but wanted the satisfaction of hearing him say it. "You are going to have to narrow down the field of possible whys a little."

"Why did you ask Cuddy for the treatment when you knew it could fail?" Wilson, no James, Jimmy asked. It was not House's doctor and colleague that asked, but Greg's friend. James lapsed into his silent staring once more.

House began to open his mouth, when Wilson came out of his silence and held up his hand in warning. "And, House I don't want any wisecracks or jokes, for once I want the god forsaken truth. I don't want to be given the run around."

House closed his mouth with almost an audible click as his teeth came together. It could go three ways here. He could lie; tell a wonderful story how he did it just to prove Cuddy and Wilson wrong about the treatment. He could tell Wilson the truth that he did it for not only himself, but to eliminate that look of pain in Wilson's eyes or he could tell him something in-between.

_It's now or never. You have the power in your hands. You are in control of this situation. In one situation, Wilson will walk away in disgust and continue not to believe you. In another he'll accept the half truths for what they are and wait until your ready, if ever, for you to tell the truth. In the other, it is an unknown. He could be shocked, he could accept it. You have to make a choice now,_ House thought to himself as he saw the irritated look begin to flash across Wilson's face and the hand to come up and pinch the middle of Wilson's nose. _And you have to make it fast._

House took a deep breath and confessed, "I'm not addicted to pain Wilson. I don't like pain. I wanted to have a chance to live without the knowledge that I am going to be in terrible chronic pain for the rest of my life. I wanted to have a chance where my hope was not going to be ripped away from me."

Wilson stared at House's eyes, searching them for the truth. Upon seeing what he wanted to know in those blue eyes, Wilson nodded. "We'll start looking for a better treatment for your pain on Monday. I don't want you on that type of vicodin anymore. I'm thinking that using one combined with Tylenol might be better for your liver."

House let go of a breath that he hadn't realized he was holding. He nodded, stared at the ceiling for a moment; he was so close to losing it. "Thank you. I am glad that you are the one who will help me."

Wilson nodded at the uncharacteristic gratitude and turned to walk out the door, when he suddenly turned around. "You know you can always talk to me, right? I promise I will be willing to listen now."

"But where is the fun of dragging you out of a dead sleep in the middle of the night to make you listen to a soliloquy?" House quipped brightly.

Wilson just shook his head and turned once more to walk out the door, when he heard a soft voice. "I know. I trust you."

In those words Wilson heard his friend's words from earlier tonight, **_Jimmy, the things I do for you_**.

Wilson smiled knowing that House hadn't meant for him to hear the words underneath the ones he said. He knew that House hadn't told the whole truth, but that was alright. He knew they had time. James would not abandon House now, not ever, no matter how many times House would and will try to push him away.

"I love you too, House." James whispered back softly as he closed the door and walked back to the couch and his dreams where House and him where running down a never ending road, never growing tired, and laughing.

Fin


End file.
